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Full-Text Articles in Law
Land Trusts That Conserve Communities, James J. Kelly
Land Trusts That Conserve Communities, James J. Kelly
Journal Articles
Much has been written about land trusts that conserve wilderness, agriculture or other environmentally beneficial uses that would be threatened by unfettered development. In the context of inner-cities, Community Land Trusts (CLTs) conserve neighborhoods. Like their environmental and agricultural counterparts, CLTs employ use restrictions to prioritize communally beneficial development. Conserving communities, however, requires other legal tools as well. CLTs create and sustain permanently affordable homes to break the market’s bias toward socioeconomic homogeneity. CLTs also make room, literally, for green space, sites of shared culture and other productive activities that the market tends to commercialize or marginalize. By sustaining a …
Homes Affordable For Good: Covenants And Ground Leases As Long-Term Resale-Restriction Devices, James J. Kelly
Homes Affordable For Good: Covenants And Ground Leases As Long-Term Resale-Restriction Devices, James J. Kelly
Journal Articles
Covenants and ground leases have been, and continue to be, used to create shared spaces that are fundamentally, and often invidiously, exclusive. Famously made a dead letter in the case of Shelley v. Kraemer, covenants banning resale to nonwhite households put the force of law behind the segregated birth of America’s suburbs. Today, gated residential communities and shopping malls assure a degree of class exclusivity through covenants and commercial ground leases, respectively. These same legal mechanisms, however, are now deployed to assure long-term inclusion as well.
Developers of affordable housing are creating homes that are not only beneficial to the …